The European Heads of State or Government held a “strategic discussion” on China for over 3 hours on Friday 21 October in Brussels. “The aim was not to have written conclusions”, warned European Council President Charles Michel after the meeting. Leaders seem to be divided on the exact attitude to adopt towards China.
The balance to be found is between naivety and systemic confrontation. The EU is aware that China is “strengthening its aggressive policy” and its “position of dominance in East Asia”, in the words of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Foreign Ministers of the EU27 had made a similar observation a few days earlier (see EUROPE 13044/14).
Europeans must therefore work to reduce their dependence on China, and leaders agree on this. The EU is dependent on Beijing in many strategic sectors such as technology, semi-conductors and certain raw materials, several leaders have stressed, advocating strategic autonomy in these areas.
One way to do this is to diversify partners. To this end, the EU will host a summit with the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on 14 December.
The President of the European Council also indicated that a summit with Latin America was planned for 2023 while news is expected on the trade agreement with the four Mercosur countries.
Olaf Scholz goes solo in Beijing
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that he will visit Beijing in early November, potentially on 3-4 November, according to several sources. It is “good to cultivate our international relations”, he said. This approach is not necessarily viewed favourably by other European leaders.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and her Latvian counterpart, Krišjānis Kariņš, came out of the summit emphasising the need to speak with one voice. “It is in their [China’s and Russia’s - ed.] interest to see us divided and it is in our interest to remain united and speak with one voice”. They added that it was important not to have different agreements with China within the EU. “That would mean that we are weaker as a Union”.
Estonia was part of the 17+1 club between China and 17 Central and Eastern European countries, but left this entity in August, as did Latvia, and Lithuania the year before.
Berlin has also been in the news in the debate with China since two German media, NDR and WDR, revealed that Olaf Scholz intends to authorise the partial sale of a terminal in the port of Hamburg (where he was mayor) to the Chinese Cosco Group. In Berlin, however, six ministries are opposed to this.
On this matter, MEP Reinhard Bütikofer (Greens/EFA, German) believes that Olaf Scholz is isolating himself. “During her chancellorship, Angela Merkel systematically used the EU’s geopolitical hesitancy toward China to stage German solo efforts. Chancellor Olaf Scholz seems to want to continue on this course, even though the government coalition has committed itself to the opposite, to more European common ground”. On the other hand, according to the MEP, the Chancellor has less support in his endeavours at European level than Angela Merkel had.
The Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, did not fail to make a dig at her German counterpart as she left the summit. “We should not sell these critical infrastructures to authoritarian regimes”, she told the media.
See the conclusions of the European Council: https://aeur.eu/f/3r8 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal with the editorial staff)